What does a circle, a veterinary technician, and a high school teacher have in common? The answer is HOSA! My HOSA story is one of coming full circle, from HOSA student to HOSA Advisor. It started almost thirty years ago when I was a junior at Deer Park High School in a Health Occupations class. HOSA membership was part of our class, and under the guidance of an enthusiastic teacher and advisor, Janet Hayes, some of my best memories in high school came from the friendships and experiences we had in HOSA, exploring health careers and paving the path to our future. My path included veterinary medicine, and I began working at Deer Park Animal Hospital as a Health Occupations HOSA student my senior year in high school. From there I went on to become a Registered Veterinary Technician, and using the leadership skills I had learned through HOSA, I found great pleasure in educating clinic staff and pet owners on all aspects of animal care. Several years into my vet tech career, I realized that I had passion for teaching, but had never imagined myself as a classroom teacher. At the suggestion of my very intuitive best friend (who was also a HOSA student with me in high school), I went back to college and earned a BS in Interdisciplinary Studies.
Soon after graduating I started teaching for a Department of Defense STEM youth program called Texas STARBASE at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas. It was an amazing year-round program working with at-risk children from various backgrounds, exciting them about future careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. It was my dream job for thirteen years. During that time I earned an MA in Public and Private Administration, in hopes of directing the program someday, but I realized soon after that my heart was really in the classroom. Later, when I had children of my own, I knew I needed to find a job that would allow me to spend more time at home so I decided I would look for a more traditional teaching job within a school district.
During a year of varied grade level substitute teaching in Clear Creek ISD, I was recommended as a potential short-term substitute for a Health Science class at Clear Brook High School. It sounded like a great opportunity, and something I could relate to. As I began to work with the students in the Health Science classes, I realized that they were in the modern version of the classes I had taken way back in high school. It was exciting! Soon I learned that the teacher I was substituting for was actually a long-term sub for a teacher who had left mid-year and there would be a job opening the next school year. As I pondered if this was something I would be good at, that same very intuitive best friend who said I should be a teacher (she was now a high school counselor) told me I would love teaching high school and would be great at it. With her encouragement I applied for the job. During my interview one of the questions asked was if I would be willing to be a HOSA advisor if I were hired for the position. I eagerly said yes, knowing this was a great chance to revisit the wonderful experiences I had as a HOSA student in high school and provide similar experiences to my students. It was an opportunity to pay it forward, and I felt like I had finally come full circle! My HOSA experience led me to the veterinary field, which helped me develop a passion for teaching and ultimately proved valuable as a healthcare profession in which my experience qualified me to go through the process of Health Science Teacher certification. I thoroughly enjoy teaching high school Health Science students and I am so excited to be part of HOSA again and share that excitement with them. I can’t help but think about how my early HOSA experiences were the starting point on my circle.
Fast forward to today… I am still a Health Science Technology Teacher at Clear Brook High School, a HOSA Advisor for one of our school’s three HOSA chapters, and like the circle itself, my HOSA journey doesn’t end there. Earlier this year I began a new part of my HOSA story, to serve on the Texas HOSA Board of Directors as an Area Board Member. Being on the board means being able to build on those early HOSA leadership skills I learned so many years ago, and working to make sure that current and future students continue to gain valuable experiences and opportunities through HOSA for years to come. You never quite know where your path will lead once you begin, and honestly if you told me back in high school that someday I would be a health science teacher and HOSA advisor, I would not have believed you. But that’s exactly what happened to me. The circle I took getting here was quite large and it took me awhile, but I’m back, and happy to be here!
